Tag Archives: Big Oil

It has happened again; ANOTHER huge oil spill, this time along the California coast, due to a pipeline break.

TV channels are filled with oil and gas advertising – probably exceeded only by healthcare and medication ads. But the oil and gas ads like to spread the message of how great they are and how safe oil drilling, pipelines and the industry overall are.

Those of us with working brain cells know that’s a load of crap. We regularly have big spills and the horrible images of wildlife suffering that go with them. Big Oil only cares in dollar signs. They shed tears for their lost profits.

Reports suggests at least 105,000 gallons of oil spilled along the California coastline. The Big Oil reps tried downplay the numbers initially and at least one clueless individual jumped out of the gate to suggest no animals had been harmed.

Tens of thousands of gallons of sludge spilled along the coastline and these folks didn’t realize animals live in the water or fly into the water. They saw the images and were unable to connect the most simplistic of dots. That is a duuuuhhh moment on a galactic level.

There are elementary-school kids all over the country that could figure out in a minute that oil spilled where animals live will impact animals. How does an oil company hire anyone who is unable to think on this level.

These people have nothing on their minds beyond profit. They can’t help themselves. And they have to downplay the seriousness of ANY spill, because nothing trumps profit.

With all of the evidence that comes with each spill, some politicians are still pushing hard for the Keystone XL Pipeline. On the subject of climate chance, many of the them proclaimed they are not scientists. That is an understatement – also on a galactic scale.

North Carolina – my home state – is close to approving offshore drilling. Politicians will ignore the current images and the same politicians will act as though they are surprised when a spill hits an offshore rig in the Atlantic.

Too many politicians will watch the coverage of spills and the severe impacts and will not care, even a little bit. If their big-money donor who hold the puppet strings don’t want them to respond, they won’t.

That sucking sound you hear is the spinal fluids leaving the backbones of every politician who backs Big Oil.

Could the huge oil spill today into the Yellowstone River be a red flag for the Keystone XL Pipeline? We continue to be told that everything from pipelines to offshore drilling to fracking is safe and sound.

Then we read over and over again about spills and health risks, while the same folks who claimed the operations are safe look around the room and whistle and turn away as if it’s no big deal.

CNN reports the pipeline in Montana burst, sending up to 50,400 gallons of oil into the Yellowstone River and prompting the state’s Governor to declare a state of emergency. Nearby residents are being told to use bottled water for drinking and cooking.

The article also notes that in 2011, a ruptured Exxon Mobil pipeline poured 42,000 gallons of oil into this same river.

But for the deniers, it’s okay. For them, spoiling the drinking water for people and the suffering of wildlife is small price to pay for adding to the back accounts of Big Oil CEOs.

Spill after spill after spill – and we’re supposed to forget it. We’re supposed to blindly turn away and ignore the degradation of the environment, all in the name of corporate profit. For too many, the future for our kids doesn’t matter and the animals don’t matter and our health and welfare just doesn’t matter. It’s all about profit.

The more I’m reading about the health and environmental impacts of fracking, the more I’m convinced we’re a long way from this being a safe system for drilling for gas and oil.

Oh we get the take from Big Oil and Big Gas – that it’s completely safe and the people who live around the fracking wells have nothing at all to be afraid of. We hear that the chemicals that the industry refuses to disclose but are pumping into the ground are very safe.

“Don’t be concerned about your neighbors being sick. Look at the pretty towers rising across the horizons. Think of them as towers of gold and magic.”

The industry doesn’t have a great track record for safety. And even when full-on, horrible disasters strike, like the Gulf Oil Gusher, the industry blows off concerns and underplays the extent of the impacts.

Should people have trusted the cigarette manufacturers when for decades they claimed smoking was safe? Naah – I think I’ll trust science; thank you.

Of late, we’re seeing more research bubble to the surface on fracking. The news that New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is ready to ban fracking in his state offered up more news about the dangers.

But while Cuomo seems to be ready to take this positive step, reports indicate his administration had previously attempted to delay and soften a report about the dangers of fracking.

A Capital New York article from early October reports in the final version of the report, “some of the authors’ original descriptions of environmental and health risks associated with fracking were played down or removed.”

So even in state that might become the first to ban fracking, the coverup on the dangers of the practice was well underway.

I’m just not going to trust the states or the industry, in claiming the chemicals are safe. Why would be that naive?

The odds that President Obama will read the following blog letter addressed to him are extremely slim – probably the same odds that I will be elected President of the United States during any future election.

But I’m going to post it anyway. Who Cares? – Right? It’s the joy of blogging.

Mr President,

One of the key questions on the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline goes to who do you trust and who should the American people trust?

A) – We can trust the science – in both the impacts of pollution on our air – and on our water from the frequent spills we will certainly see. And we can trust the science on climate change.

Or B) – We could trust Big Oil and its lobbyists and CEOs and non-scientists.

The B option has the poorest of track records. Remember before the Gulf Oil Gusher, when the propaganda from politicians and Big Oil was telling us off-shore oil drilling was soooo safe and spills rarely, ever happen? After the one of the biggest man-made disasters in world history unfolded in the Gulf of Mexico and after we found out the level of coverup that transpired, we found out that leaks and spills were commonplace in the Gulf and the equipment is anything but safe.

The lives of so many people were impacted and of course the suffering for wildlife was extreme. We should never forget the images of animals covered with thick layers of sludge or the individuals who died on the rig. Had the Federal Government and the Minerals Management Service not so fully trusted and bowed down to Big Oil, maybe that disaster could have been prevented.

Sure – we need jobs and energy is vital to our society. But why should we continue to live in the 1930s? Even by the 1960s we had a government that pushed innovation. President Kennedy called for a man on the Moon by the end of the decade and the effort proceeded forward like a stampede, until the goal was reached.

Now, as a nation, Big Oil would have us believe we need to back up into the 1950s. We are four decades beyond Neal Armstrong’s first footprint on the moon. Where is the same level of governmental push for innovation on energy, that we saw with space exploration back in the 1960s?

What we, the people, see from the outside looking in seems to be the stifling of energy innovation, from the rather large boot of Big Oil. The strategy seems from my viewpoint to be – slow down real energy innovation until they’ve sucked as many barrels of oil out of the ground as possible. Why? – Because oil still in the ground is lost profit, when some clean, great energy source rolls into the forefront.

So again I ask – Who should you trust and who should the American people trust? In whose hands should we place our future? Should Big Oil get its way or should the health and welfare of our environment and therefore the health and welfare of the American people take the highest level of concern?

A former TransCanada Corp. employee testified last week about the company before a Canadian Senate committee and used phrases such as a “culture of noncompliance” and “coercion” and “deeply entrenched business practices that ignored legally required regulations and codes” and “significant public safety risks” – according to an articled posted Tuesday on the Huffington Post website.

And of course, all of this related to the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline that would carry tar sands oil from Canada, through the US and on to the Gulf Coast. After the hearing, Evan Vokes told the Huffington Post – “It’s organized crime, in my opinion.”

Big Oil’s safety record across the board and over many, many years is poor at best – from the Exxon Valdez to the Gulf Oil Gusher to another recent pipeline spill to many other spills and disasters in the United States and worldwide.

Who could honestly say they’d want work done around their homes by companies with sort of track record? But because it’s Big Oil, some people and some politicians will give them a pass every time. Remember in the few years leading up to the Gulf Oil Gusher how many politicians praised Big Oil as having a great safety record. That turned out to be huge strike out.

I tend to not trust people who get it all wrong to this extent. We should all be concerned with what could happen with the Keystone XL Pipeline. And because it might not be running through your state, it doesn’t mean you should not be concerned.

One of the common themes from Big Oil and industries that exploit animals are the typical quotes spewed by the insiders when the time comes to defend cases where animals are harmed or die.

After the recent rupture of Exxon’s Pegasus pipeline in Arkansas the company put out a written statement concerning the impact of the estimated 84,000 gallons of crude spilled into the area.

One sentence from the statement read –

“The majority of the impacted wildlife has been reptiles, primarily venomous snakes.”

This obviously is wrong, as the oil cannot pick and choose the animals it swamps – and the quote relates to the live animals found. And of course, the statement is meant as propaganda, as if no one would care if snakes were the primary victims. And what? – Were non-venomous snakes somehow spared?

In the UK, horse racing defenders are taking a page out of the greyhound racing industry. Prior to a horse dying after a Grand National race, a jockey was quoted by the Cambridge News as saying the race horses receive better treatment than “many children.”

Animal Aid reports the horse was the 23rd to die during the Grand National since 2000. In the Fox Hunters’ Chase, several horses reported pulled up or fell, described as being “potentially injured.”

So are “many children” forced to race in events such as this. And would a civilized society allow an event go on where 23 kids died over this same time frame, with many more injured?

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I haven’t handed out a Pack of Putrid Punditry Award in a long while. But this week, we have someone fully deserving of the (dis)honor. Rep. Steve Stockman of Texas Tweeted the following recently –

“The best thing about the Earth is if you poke holes in it oil and gas come out.”

For him, apparently it’s not good people or the beauty of nature of even that he believes God created the Earth. None of that is the best thing for him. Apparently, the best thing about the Earth for him is the fact that Big Oil can make massive profits off drilling into it. And he must think that this is the best thing, even if the process horribly pollutes the Earth.

And he must think this even in the wake of the huge pipeline oil spill in Arkansas or even the BP Oil Gusher in the Gulf.

It just doesn’t matter, as long as Big Oil and GREED win the day. This is Putrid Punditry on a whole new level. I think Mr. Potter from “It’s a Wonderful Life” would applaud Stockman with a big greedy smile on his face.